Crumbs of Faith

The religious insiders looked clean but had hearts far from God, while an unlikely outsider recognized Jesus and refused to let go. What might the Canaanite woman teach us about humility, persistence, and a faith Jesus calls “great”?

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Screen. But if you would turn to the Gospel of Matthew. Matthew is where we have been studying. I have grown to love Matthew. I think I say that about every Gospel.

I really love the Gospel of John. But I. I tell you what. Matthew, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, what a writer he was. What a writer. So you think Matthew, this tax collector, Matthew, who then was called and who left it all and turned to Jesus, and then God used him as a disciple of Christ.

And he is the one writing these words under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. And we'll get to see a picture today of something that I had never seen side by side before. Oftentimes we look at passages in just a couple of verses here or a couple of verses here. But seeing these two encounters back to back was how Matthew wanted us to see it. So if you have your Bible, will you stand with me?

I read the Gospel reading today from Matthew 15, and I am going to start at verse 10.

This is the reading of God. It says, Jesus called the crowd to him and said to them, listen and understand. It is not what goes into the mouth that defiles a person, but it is what comes out of the mouth that defiles. Then the disciples approached and said to him, do you know that the Pharisees took offense when they heard what you said? And he answered, every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be uprooted.

Let them alone. They are blind guides of the blind. And if one blind person guides another, both will fall into a pit. But Peter said to him, don't you love? Peter explained this parable to us.

And then he said, are you also still without understanding? Do you not see that whatever goes into the mouth enters the stomach and goes out into the sewer? But what comes out of the mouth proceeds from the heart, and this is what defiles. For out of the heart comes evil intentions, murder, adultery, fornication, theft, false witness, slander. These are what defile a person.

But to eat with unwashed hands does not defile. Jesus left that place and went away to the district of Tyre and Sidon. And just then a Canaanite woman from that region came out and started shouting, have mercy on me, Lord, son of David. My daughter is tormented by a demon. But he did not answer her at all.

And his disciples came and urged him, saying, send her away, for she keeps shouting after us. And he answered, I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. But she came and she knelt before him, saying, lord, help me. And he answered, it is not Fair to take the children's food and throw it to the dogs. And she said, yes, Lord.

Yet even the dogs eat the crown that fall from their master's table. Then Jesus answered her, woman, great is your faith. Let it be done for you as you wish. And her daughter was healed instantly. Father, this is your word and these are your words for us today.

Jesus, will you come? Will you teach us from your Word Today we want to have a Bible study with you. Father, come and speak to our hearts. We're hungry, we're thirsty and we need you. In Jesus name, amen.

And you can be seated. Two encounters right here in the Gospel of Matthew. I want us to look at them first with the encounter with Jesus and these Pharisees, these teachers of the law, Pharisees if you will, are the inner crew. These are the insiders, these are the religious sect. These are the ones that look like they have it all together.

These are the pastors, if you will, of that time. They have studied the word. These are the insiders. And if you back up in Matthew 15 to verse one, I'm going to pick it up there and kind of teach a little bit what's been going on. So backing up to verse one, Jesus is questioned by the Pharisees, by these teachers of the law.

Now where Jesus is right now in Matthew 15, he is near the Sea of Galilee. Jerusalem, where the Pharisees lived was about 90 miles south. So these Pharisees have traveled 90 miles up to where Jesus is by the Sea of Galilee. Now why would they go 90 miles up there to talk to Jesus? I don't know if they were on foot, I don't know if they were on horse or camel.

I don't know how they got there. But 90 miles up to Jesus, they went out of their way and they're going there to investigate. See, they know about Jesus. By this time, Jesus had a huge crowd following him. By this time, Jesus had been healing and performing miracles over and over again.

The reputation had went forward. The Pharisees have heard and they know what he is said to have been doing. And so they're coming to investigate. I'll go 90 miles to go see Jesus so I can ask about this. What was so important to these Pharisees that they wanted to go to investigate Jesus?

So they seek and they go. I tell you, if you could ask Jesus one question, what would you ask him? If you had an opportunity to travel 90 miles and Jesus would be there, what do you think you would ask for? If you had one moment in front of Jesus, and you're going to ask him a question. What would you ask?

Well, the Pharisees have their opportunity, and they go to him to ask Jesus about a particular issue. And it's an issue with Jesus disciples, they question Jesus on this. Get it? Why the disciples didn't wash their hands before eating. Now, if you had one question with Jesus, how many of you would ask, why did your disciples not ceremoniously wash their hands before they ate?

I would never ask that question. I don't think that would be the one. But they're asking. They say, why do your disciples hear the question? Why do your disciples break the tradition of the elders?

Now, they had beef with the disciples, but they're bringing it to Jesus. So of all things, that was their question. There was a ceremonial washing. Most of us are not familiar with this, but there was a ceremonial washing. This was not scripture.

This was not a command that they had to follow. This was a tradition. What it was all the way back. This is not written in the law. But the command from Moses was that the priests would ceremoniously wash their hands and their feet before they worked and they served in the temple.

So before this ritual, they would wash. However, over time, the elders started adding this tradition. And they said, no, all people have have to ceremoniously wash, not just if they're near the temple, but before they do any eating they had added to this was not scripture. They were saying, everyone needs to do this. That same ritual that's done in the temple, we want to impose on all people.

And we're going to call this a sacred tradition and count it as law. They also believe, these Pharisees, that by touching something unclean and then ingesting it, they were taking and they would become unclean themselves. It was a fear almost that they would become unclean if they did something or touched something unclean, that they would bring that on. In their opinion, these Pharisees were clean. And so they didn't want to do anything that had the appearance of unclean.

So they go 90 miles out of their way to ask Jesus why your disciples break tradition. And in this moment, I find it interesting that the question is about the disciples. But the disciples say nothing in that moment when their beef was with the disciples who spoke on their behalf. But Jesus and friends, there are times in our life when somebody says something crooked, when somebody says something sideways, when somebody will say something or make an assumption, Jesus will say, don't say anything. You don't even have to respond.

I Tell you, Jesus will speak on our behalf. Sometimes Jesus says, let me handle it. Let me handle it. And in this moment, I can't believe Peter didn't say nothing. I mean, I feel like Peter was just itching, like, oh, let me tell them why.

But no, no, no. Jesus speaks. So in this moment, the disciples don't respond, and Jesus does. And Jesus responds to the question with a question. Have you ever noticed how Jesus does that?

He responds to a question with a question. And he says here, why do you Pharisees, why do you break the command of God for a tradition? Hear the question from the Pharisees, why do you break tradition? God says, why do you break command for a tradition? You think, okay, well, how were they doing this?

How was this happening? Jesus turns it back on them, and he says, actually, you've been breaking actual commands of God. And then he gives an example to them of how they've done that. And you see, there was a Pharisee tradition called Corban, Corban, C O, R, B A N, Corban. And what this meant was they could.

They made this little tradition where they could say, I've got a set amount of money. Maybe they had some money set aside, and they could say, I'm taking my money. And it's dedicated to God. It's dedicated to God. And that would create a little tax shelter, if you will.

So then when the command comes forward to honor your father and your mother, in that time, they didn't have Social Security, there was no retirement plan. So they were expected if they had a way to provide for their parents as their parents got older, they would do so. But the Pharisees made a loophole. And so when their parents came and said, can you help me or give me some financial assistance? They would say, I'm so sorry.

Sorry, I have dedicated my money to God. I don't have any for you. They were making the command of God to honor their parents with this loophole. So God brings it to their attention. Why do you.

He said, you nullify the word of God for the sake of your tradition. You think you have created a loophole to avoid obeying the very commands of God. And I think, whoa, the audacity of those Pharisees. But do we do the same thing? Do we do the same thing?

Do we come up with our own laws or our own loopholes to circum. Whatever God is saying, I want you to do this. And we say, oh, but not me. Oh, but it's not as bad as some, you know, God says we should remain pure before marriage, but in this time, that's just not really. God says, I want you to be generous.

Well, but I'm doing better than some people. You see what I'm saying? God will speak something to our very hearts, and then we will come up with why it's okay for us and God. To them, he says, you hypocrites.

Jesus looks at them and says, you hypocrites, you're a pretender. He says, you're fake.

He goes on and highlights words from the prophet Isaiah when he says, these people draw near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, for but their heart is far from me. Those are harsh words, aren't they? He says, they honor me with their mouth, but their heart is far. He says, in vain, they worship me. We never want to worship in vain.

He says, in vain they worship me. And they teach as doctrine the commandments of man.

And this, I feel, is a moment of reflection for us when. When we could ask ourselves, do we appear to draw near to God, but our heart is far from him? How often do we appear to be so close to God? Oh, if you looked at her social, she looks like she's a godly woman. Oh, if you looked at his Instagram, he appears to live for Jesus.

But when I spend time with them, nope, they're far from me. And I love. Just like that phone goes off, that is God speaking to our heart, saying, this is a time for you to pay attention. He's sounding the alarm to us to say, where is your heart? Where is your heart?

Do you appear to be close, but really you're far from me. I think to myself, I'm visual. So if I could see God and I could see my heart, how close are they?

Is my heart in God and God in my heart? Or if I took inventory, is God here in my heart? Is it real close, but not quite? Do I feel like my heart is far from him? If I'm honest, how close is my heart to the Father?

He says these words, he says, with their lips they praise, but their heart, he sees our heart, their hearts are far. It was the heart of the Father to draw the Pharisees back to himself.

So in this moment, we get to be honest with God. And God says, emily, how is your heart? I see it. Do you see your heart in me?

And then Jesus calls the crowd and he gives this parable and he says, what goes into someone's mouth does not defile them, but what comes out of their mouth, that is what defiles them. Jesus gives this little parable, and I love the disciples, which is us. I love the disciples. And they go to Jesus and they say, can't you just hear him? Do you know that the Pharisees were offended when you said that?

Do you know that the Pharisees were offended? I'm thinking to myself, of all questions, you never have to ask Jesus if he knows anything. He knows, and he is not real concerned by how offended they are with him speaking truth. And that's a word for us. Now.

Jesus still speaks truth, and that's conviction. He still speaks truth to us. And the Pharisees, do you know that that kind of upset them? It's kind of like if the board was to say, well, pastor Emily, it kind of offends somebody. When you spoke the truth, do you know that that offended them?

Oh, disciples. And Jesus answers about the religious leaders and about them being offended by his teaching. And he says, every plant that my father has not planted will be pulled up by. By the roots. Leave them, he says.

And then he calls them blind guides. He's already called them hypocrites, and now he calls them blind guides. The ones who should be guiding others can't see what's in front of them. We live in a time where that is true. Even now we have people that say they preach the word of God who are blind guides.

We have people with huge followings who are blind guides. Jesus says, leave them. There will be a time when they will be pulled up by the roots. It reminds me of the parable of the weeds. There is a harvest coming, and there is a time, and they will be dealt with.

And that is what he says here. He says, if the blind lead the blind, both fall into the pit.

Here comes Peter. And Peter says, jesus, will you explain to me the parable what that means? And Jesus says, are you still so dull?

But then he goes on and he does explain it to him. He says, whatever goes into the stomach comes out of the body. But the things that come out of a person's mouth come from the heart, and that's what defiles them. He says, the heart is. Is the center of the spiritual life.

So when you think about the word defile, meaning unclean, meaning dirty, meaning polluted, meaning profane, it's not what you're taking in to eat that makes you unclean. Actually, it's an overflow coming out of you what comes from your heart. And that's where the defilement. He says, the Pharisees have Focused on these outward cleansings, these ritual cleansings. But their heart is far from me.

They think they are clean, but their heart is defiled. He's trying to point it out, and he says, for out of the heart comes the evil thoughts. He lists them there. Evil thoughts. Murder, adultery.

Where does that come from? A heart that is defiled. Sexual immorality, heart that is defiled. Theft, false testimony, being a hypocrite. Where does that come from?

A heart that is defiled. Slander, speaking lies, speaking against people. Where does that come from? That comes from a heart that is far from God. A heart that is defiled.

All of these come from a heart that is corrupted, Heart that has not yet been transformed, been regenerated. And how is your heart? How is your heart? If all of those things flow from the heart, then it is very important that today we take a moment and say, jesus, will you make my heart squeaky clean? Could you make my heart squeaky clean?

Where there is nothing but pure that flows from my heart?

The Pharisees had studied scripture. They thought they were holy. They thought they were living all these extra traditions, and that was keeping them close to the heart of God. And yet no faith at all.

I think if I had asked the Pharisees, if I had been standing there and said, how do you think your heart is? I think they truly would have answered, I think my heart is pure. And the very bread of life is standing just with them. And they're missing it altogether because they're blinded. Jesus, will you open our eyes?

God, if we are blind guides, show us. Show us our heart, Father. Show us our heart.

Check our hearts today. He called them hypocrites, and he called them blind guides. And that's the first encounter. And then there's the second encounter. What happens with Jesus in this second encounter?

There is a woman. She's called the Canaanite woman. The text tells us that Jesus withdrew. So now he is at the Sea of Galilee. Pharisees came up 90 miles to confront him.

Jesus leaves and goes over to this region of Tyre and Sidon. If I had a map, you would see that it's along the coast. These are port cities. They're miles apart. Tyre and Sidon on the coast.

He goes over to that region. It's very interesting because this area was largely Gentile. It was very pagan, very pagan. Lots of idolatry. And Jesus goes there.

You've got the Pharisees who think they are clean and have it all together. And Jesus leaves them and goes to the place known for idolatry. Unclean pagan worship. You remember Queen Jezebel? She's the one who introduced BAAL worship to Israel.

She was a Sidonian princess from that region full of idolatry. And here it says a Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to Jesus, crying out, lord, son of David, have mercy on me. My daughter is demon possessed and suffers terribly. Now, what do we know about this woman? We don't know her name.

We don't even know her name. We know she's unnamed. We know she's not Jewish. We know she's a mama. We know she's from a region that is pagan.

And we know she wants help for her daughter. That's what we know about her. And Matthew calls her a Canaanite, which that's representing the historic group outside of Israel. Matthew calls her a Canaanite. If you look at the text in Mark, Mark calls her a Syrophoenician, meaning a Greek.

Matthew calls her a Canaanite. Mark calls her a Greek. Why? Because it's the same story written to different listeners. Matthew is writing to Jewish Christians.

He calls her a Canaanite. Mark is writing to Greeks, Romans, and he uses the term a Greek. So he is speaking to a Roman Gentile audience. Interesting. Stay with me.

The term Canaanite would have been deeply shocking to the Jewish Christian readers. You said the word Canaanite, and that elicits something within me. It's a response. It's a trigger word. It's a trigger word, actually.

These were spiritual, political enemies of Israel. These are the enemies. And even research, when I was looking into this, it said that by the first century, this was an archaic word they weren't even really using anymore. And for Matthew to use it here, it would have been like, ooh, why are you bringing up Canaanite? He's doing it on purpose.

He's intentionally bringing up a word that will bring up some amount of baggage within the reader for us. We don't quite get it. But why would this word be a trigger? Why? Well, they were Israel's enemy, Biblical enemy.

You go all the way back. Canaanites were the original wicked inhabitants of the promised land. So when Jesus sent the Israelites in, he said, now you need to get out all of the Canaanites to get them out. They were considered the enemy. They were involved in pagan worship, child sacrifice, deeply evil.

So to call someone a Canaanite to the Jewish reader would have been a spiritual arch enemy. Also. It would have been a reminder of intermarriage and spiritual Corruption. You read through the Old Testament over and over again. It would say, it would warn them, don't compromise, stay faithful to me.

Don't intermarry with the Canaanites over and over again. Because they would. And it would lead to their downfall, to their own idolatry. It would cause national downfall and their exile over and over again when they had that. And lastly, inherited curses.

You may remember that Canaanites, they were the descendants of Canaan, who was the grandson of Noah. Noah's grandson is Canaan. The Canaanites came from Canaan. And in Genesis 9, verse 25, there was a curse on Canaan. A servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.

So they looked at the Canaanites as cursed. So over and over again you see that word. So to Matthew's audience, the Canaanite was the farthest person away from God's blessing. And. And yet what happens here, there's a theological twist.

He uses the word Canaanite to set up the irony. The expectation of the reader is that the Canaanite is a pagan enemy who brings spiritual contamination, that we don't want to get close to her. She is unclean, she is our enemy. And yet in the reality, she is humble and she has more faith than the Jewish Pharisees. Matthew sets this up back to back with us first hearing about the Pharisees, the clean ones, the insiders, and then turning our attention to the outsider, the unclean, the Canaanite woman.

And she says the title. What does she call Jesus? She calls him Lord, son of David. She uses Messianic language that the enemies that the Canaanites would not be using, that was language of the Jews. And she uses that language.

She calls him the Messiah. She says, you are the promised king, you are the healer of Israel. And she petitions him for healing for her daughter. It's interesting because she had no claim to covenantal relationship. She was not a Jew.

And yet she is coming before Jesus, asking him to bring.

Unusual encounter here with a woman in a public space crying out for help. That wouldn't have been done at that time for a woman to approach a man and cry out for help. A Canaanite to a Jew, this would not have happened. And yet she goes to him. Can any mama in here relate?

Can any parent in here relate? You've got a child who is suffering terribly. And you know there is one who has healed others. There is nothing that is stopping me from getting to Jesus to cry out for my child. Have you been there?

You may have a prodigal even now. And there is nothing that's going to stop you from every single day, praying for your children every single day. Son of David, have mercy. And she approaches him, this unclean one. And how did Jesus respond?

Oh, how did Jesus respond? In this moment, he does nothing.

Can you picture the woman? Son of David, have mercy. And Jesus is silent. Oh, I don't like that. In this moment, when you think, oh, what is Jesus going to do?

Initially, he's silent. Why would Jesus be silent? Well, a couple of reasons. When you study this one, there was covenant priority. So Jesus, his earthly ministry would focus, he uses the word here, on the lost sheep of Israel.

This was to fulfill scriptural prophecy that he would come that before the gospel would expand to all nations and began with the Jewish. This was covenantal. So that's one reason. Number two, this was testing of her faith. And you may not like that, but when Jesus is silent, it actually gives her an opportunity to show her faith that she is not giving up, that she still puts her faith in Jesus.

His delay gives her opportunity to go forward. Sometimes Jesus is silent doesn't mean he's not answering. It gives her an opportunity. And not only that, guess who else is there? The disciples.

Jesus is teaching his boys by being silent. He gives the disciples an opportunity to deal with what is in their own heart, their own bias, their own lack of compassion. He's going to check the heart of his boys by being silent initially. So in those moments, Jesus knows what he's doing. Jesus has a purpose for his silence.

But it doesn't feel good, does it? When we ask ourselves, are there times when Jesus is silent? Well, biblically, we see that there is. He was silent here. So just a side message, what do we do when Jesus is silent?

Well, number one, is Jesus really silent or are you not listening? That's one we have to check. Are we not paying attention? Number two, if Jesus is silent, is there sin in the camp? The Bible says the prayers of a righteous man, a righteous woman avails much.

Is there sin in our heart?

But if not, then the example of this woman, what does she do? If we're going to learn from her, what does she do? Well, she keeps following him. She keeps crying out, and she keeps her eyes on him. If you feel like Jesus is silent, you keep following anyways.

You keep your eyes on Jesus and you keep crying out for help.

So what does Jesus do then? Well, Jesus is silent. The disciples show what's in their heart, and they urge Jesus, will you please send her away? The disciples Want to dismiss her. She is crying out behind us and it's super annoying.

Jesus, will you please send her away? That's what's in their heart.

God help us.

Is that us? Sometimes Jesus, will you just send them away?

The disciples want him to send her away. It reminds me of when Jesus is feeding the 5,000 and they say, will you just send them all home? And Jesus has compassion. And he's like, no, you're going to feed them. Guys, how often are we quick to dismiss when God wants us to move with compassion?

So Jesus answers, I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. That's his response. Now, I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. The lost sheep of Israel. It's not actually a compliment.

I was sent to the lost sheep of Israel. Jesus gives his reply this. There is a boundary. My immediate scope, first of my earthly ministry is for the lost sheep.

Matthew highlights the lost sheep because remember, he's writing to the Jewish readers that Jesus stayed with his covenantal promise, that he was fulfilling prophecy for the Jewish people first.

At the same time, he's showing the lack of interest among the disciples. So here we are. And the woman hears him say those words, and it does not stop her in her pursuit of healing for her child. She falls on her knees and she says, lord, help me. And the woman hears.

She immediately falls, lord, help me. And Jesus responds with a metaphor. And he says, it's not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs. And I'm like, what, Jesus? Like, I'm visual.

And the woman has proceeded to fall at your feet in worship and ask for help. And that's how you respond. So then you have to dig. Okay, Jesus, what are we talking about here? So that the children.

The children's bread. Who are the children? That would be the people of Israel. Now, what is the bread? The bread would be the blessing of the Messiah, the healing, the deliverance, the salvation.

That's the bread. And then the dogs in the story is us, the Gentiles. Now, Jesus, it's really neat when you. When you dig into this. He's intentionally using a word that would trigger a response among the disciples.

I believe this is probably how the disciples had been calling and talking about the Gentiles. So Jesus uses a word that they would be like, oh, Jesus said that he uses the word on purpose. Now, he's not meaning it to be rude or harsh, and we'll talk about that. But he is saying the word to call out what is already in the Heart of his boys. He's bringing it to the table so they can have a discussion about it.

He's mirroring, if you will, cultural prejudice. So he vocalizes out loud the harsh perspective of his own disciples. He holds up a mirror to them. Now, Jesus is not trying to degrade the woman. And if you look into the word, he does use different word.

So the word on the street, if you will, for dog, like a derogatory, like a scavenger, is not the word he uses. Jesus chooses to use the word in the Greek that means a puppy, means a pet. So the word in the Greek, kunerion is the word for puppy. That is not the word that they would use for dog.

However, Jesus is using this dog metaphor here. But the point is, he's saying he invites the puppy into the house. When you think about it, whose responsibility is it to feed a puppy? It's the master of the house. So, yes, the master of the house is still feeding the people inside the house.

Even the pet. He was pulling her in. Even in his teaching, she wasn't an outsider. He moves the imagery into the house that the Gentiles were not permanently barred, but that they would also participate in the blessing of God. He's bringing them in, but there's a proper order of the meal.

He sets up an object lesson on salvation to the Jewish people first and then to the world. And he uses that domestic seen that the children would sit at the table first and be fed, but ultimately the master would feed the whole house. So here we are. And he uses this little conversational riddle, if you will. And I love the Canaanite woman's response, don't you?

She very quickly enters in. Now, I don't know how I would have responded, but she responds by coming into the conversation and participates with the riddle. And Jesus did that on purpose. He gave her a conversational foothold to keep the conversation going. Had he really wanted to just bypass her, he could.

He didn't have to have the riddle. He does it on purpose so they can have this interaction. And that's when she entered in. And she says, yes, it is, Lord. She acknowledges, but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master's table.

She didn't argue the point of the boundary. She knew there was a boundary for the Jewish people first. But she enters in and says, your mercy is so abundant that even the crumbs bring healing. And he says, woman, you have great faith. He commends her faith, Woman, you have great faith.

And then he says, Your request is granted. The Bible says that immediately her daughter, who had been suffering terribly, was healed. This woman who approached Jesus, who skipped over all kind of cultural boundaries, years of enmity between the Jewish people and the Canaanites, and. And yet she had faith way more than the Pharisees. And he says, your request has been granted.

See, Matthew wants us to look at chapter 15 with the first encounter with the Pharisees, the insiders, the clean ones, and the Canaanite woman. The outsider, the unclean, and yet the lack of faith with the Pharisees and the huge great faith of the Canaanite woman. He wants us to see the difference back to back. So we'll see the shocking contrast between the two, between someone who says they are superficially very religious and someone who just has a heart of authentic faith, the Pharisees and the Canaanite woman. True cleanliness versus uncleanliness.

We see that. It's interesting to me that immediately after he encounters the Pharisees that are so worked up about unwashed hands, he would go to a place of unclean to talk to someone who had a heart that was pure. You see the entitlement of the Pharisees. Would you please follow our traditions, because we know we're already in. To a woman who says, I have no other resource.

I come to you and I'm willing in humility to fall at your feet and just beg for crumbs. You see the difference. You see the teaching about the lips, but the heart was far. And here's this woman who's using words, son of David, that have no place to be on the Canaanite woman's lips, and her heart is close. Matthew wants us to see the difference.

And then you have the concept of bread. Did you see that? And earlier in the chapter, he's saying, why would you. Why you would eat bread with unwashed hands? And then Jesus uses the metaphor of the children's bread.

It's interesting that later, after this, in Matthew 15, Jesus feeds a crowd of 4,000 people bread in a largely Gentile region. It's all through the chapter, the very bread of life is here today, friends. Don't waste it. The Pharisees had access to Jesus. They could have asked for their own healing.

I thought to myself, jesus, how many of those Pharisees had a child that was sick? How many of those Pharisees needed healing? How many of those Pharisees had someone that they were concerned about? And they could have asked for healing and met Jesus there for healing for them, but. But they Wasted the opportunity to talk about unwashed hands.

Can we not waste our opportunity when the bread of life is in the room?

So as I close a couple of takeaways, how are we like the Pharisees? Do we hold on to traditions over God's law? Do we get upset when things don't go like we like them to or the way they've always been? Instead of seeing people through the lens of Jesus, like Jesus, what moves your heart, what breaks your heart? Jesus, will you help us to see through your eyes, people?

Would you help Jesus to love first? Do we miss the very bread Jesus himself when we're focused on side issues?

Help us not to get so distracted by the hand Washington our day to day life that we miss the opportunity of getting real redemption and healing and deliverance from Jesus who is preaching, who is present. And I think about Jesus calling them blind guides. Help us Lord, to have eyes that see. The Canaanite woman had eyes to see Jesus and God met her and God healed her. I want you to know that there was a humble persistence among the Canaanite woman.

She had great faith and Jesus, will you help us even in times of silence, to have the faith like the Canaanite woman? You know, one day we'll get to heaven and we'll get to meet her, we'll know her name, we'll get to know her name, we'll get to ask her about what was that like? We can be encouraged by this outsider. Now we need to pray as members of Harvest Point that God would give us eyes to see people that we consider outsiders, that we consider unclean, that we consider dirty and also give us eyes to see if we think we are pure and our heart is close. But God says, you're a hypocrite.

So lastly, I want you to see that God's bread is for all. God's bread is for all. He came first to the Jewish people, but then it spread out from there. It spread bread throughout. And no matter who you are, you are welcome at the table of God.

His bread is for all. He says, blessed are they who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be filled. He doesn't say, for the one who looks like me, votes like me, sounds like me. But he says, for they that hunger after righteousness shall be filled. That's a promise.

They will be filled. They will be filled. So questions for personal response. How far is my heart from God? God, will you show me that?

How far is my heart from you? Number two is my first response to dismiss others or am I moved with compassion? When I see a need, when I see a hurt, when I see a situation, is my first response to dismiss or to move with compassion? Number three. Do I feel God is silent?

Do I feel God is silent? Am I listening? Is there sin present? If not, I keep persisting. Who?

Humble persistence. He knows what he's doing. He's teaching. He's working in ways that we cannot see. But he is moving.

And last. Do you know the bread of life? Do you know the bread of life which is Jesus? You can be filled today. His bread is for all.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.